Confronting the refrigerator pt. 2

(Warning: There may be some spoilers in this post. If you care, don't say I didn't warn you)

Well my first attempt at keeping a schedule here was a huge failure. I meant to have this up yesterday but work conspired against me once again. Oh well, best to move on.

Last week we dealt with the double standard of the Women in Refrigerators Syndrome. Today we take a look at the second, and in my not so humble opinion, the major problem with WiR as an argument; the literary aspect.

First lets take a look at a sample of Simones list, the As just to keep it simple:
All of Savage Dragon's girlfriends (dead)
Alysande Stuart (dead)
Amethyst (blinded, merged with Gemworld, destroyed in LSH; became a power-hungry witch in Book of Fate)
Apparition (one of her three bodies dead, soul bound to boyfriend)
Aquagirl (dead)
Arisia (dead)
Aurora (Multiple Personality Disorder, depowered)

These characters have one major thing in common, other than gender. They are all supporting characters.

(It may get a little gray when it comes to Amethyst, being on the Legion of Super Heroes and thus theoretically an equal member of the team, but anyone who reads a team book, especially one with a roster the size of LSH knows that eventually main characters float to the top depending on the writer; in the case of the Legion its their founding three and Brainiac Five in most cases though multiple reboots kinda muddy that water.)

A supporting character has one major role in literature; to enhance and expand the main characters story, to support them. They do grow, they have their own lives and their own plots, but in the end they exist to facilitate the main characters story.

Sometimes that means a character has to die.

Whether its Borimir getting filled with holes trying to save the Hobbits while showing that the story was getting into its darker phase, or Kamina making his Big Damn Heroes Sacrifice to eventually push Simon into acting like a MAN OF DESTINY!!! or Aeris getting sworded to move FFVIIs plot into high gear; characters die to serve the story.

Hell, X-Statix killed off pretty much its entire team in the first issue to set its tone (and throw the reader for a loop).

Simone herself knows this. In Wonder Woman she had supporting character Etta Candy tortured into a coma while in Secret Six she had Artemis of the Amazons beaten tortured threatened with rape and nearly killed (to the point that Wonder Woman showed up and thought she was dead).

This can get muddied in comics more so then in many other forms of literature though. As mentioned above we have the problem of the team book, but we also have the issue of characters that continue to be written for years if not decades, often under different hands. A supporting character that lasts long enough may grow popular enough for their own book. Problems arise then when they are in their original, home, series. In a batman book, Tim Drake is still a supporting character, but in Red Robin hes the hero (and he makes a damn fine cheese burger!).

In the end though, a supporting character (popular or not) must serve the main characters story, be it through their actions in life or their death.

That's not to say I don't see a problem here, because there is one. The problem isn't who gets killed, its who pulls the trigger. Not the villains, the writers.

Character death is cheap in comics. Part of it is the revolving door on the after life (its been barely 2 years since Steve Rogers died and hes back in the stars and stripes, Bruce Wayne barely went a year in the dirt before DC announced his come back). But a lot of it is the residual effect from the 90´s dark age of comics.

Characters died before, always have always will. But one of the good things about the ¨lighter and happier¨ times of of the Silver Age was that if a character died they usually went out like a hero.

Look at the original Supergirl. She single handedly beat down the biggest, baddest mutha fucka in existence, the Anti Monitor. She would have taken him down but for a lucky shot from Monty, but she still saved the day, she went out like a hero.

Yes, not everyone can go out fighting the living embodiment of destruction because that would cheapen heroic sacrifices. But comics have come to treat death and horror in pretty much all shapes something cheap to be thrown in to a story.

Need to start an event book, kill a Teen Titan or two. Need to make a character deep, kill their loved ones. Yes it adds drama and depth when done well, but when its plastered over every book it becomes tawdry and pointless, existing only for shock value.

Supergirls death was epic and awe inspiring. Captain America and Superman's deaths were heart breaking and tragic. Marvin and Wendy got eaten by a demonic Wonder Dog. I expect that shit from a teenager writing a fan fic, not professional authors.

What I'm trying to say is that the problem isn't that terrible things happen to female characters. The problem is that terrible (and terribly written) things happen to characters too often and for too little purpose.

For fucks sake writers, find a better way to use your characters, or at least a better way to finish using them.